Many fluid handling systems include a fluid delivery system that supplies fluid to a fluid-dispensing (or ejection) device using conduits connected between the fluid delivery system and the fluid-dispensing device. Such systems can be found in printers in the form of an ink reservoir or ink delivery system connected to a print head. Some printers include a stationary reservoir fixed to a body of the printer and a movable print head that moves across a print media, such as paper, during printing. For such applications, the conduits are usually flexible and threaded around a number of bends before they are connected to the movable print head.
The conduits are typically connected to the print head by fitting them over substantially rigid tubules or the like, which are attached to the print head and connected to ink delivery channels associated with ink-injecting orifices of the print head. For example, the conduits may fit over barbed ends of the connectors. Unfortunately, removing the conduits from the connectors and subsequently reattaching them may result in a leak between the connector and the conduit. Moreover, in certain systems fitting the conduits onto the connectors requires a special tool. Another concern is that, in the absence of coding the conduits to their respective connectors, it is possible to connect a conduit to the wrong connector for color printers, where each conduit supplies different colored ink to the print head.